Harness the power of the sun – use a pool solar heater

We all know the power of the sun. There are two ways in which the power of the sun manifests itself. The first one is in the form of heat. We’ve all had an experience where you pick up a hosepipe that was lying in the sun all morning. The water in the pipe is so hot that you have to let it run a while before you can even touch it. The water is warmed by the heat generated by the sun shining on the pipe. The second way the sun supplies energy is by the sunlight itself. Most of us would have played with a magnifying glass at some stage. The magnifying glass concentrates the light of the sun on a small spot and that in itself produces heat to the point of burning the object of the focus. Because the sunlight is concentrated it takes much less time to produce the heat. Both of these can be used to build a pool solar heater.

Both of these ways, passive and active, can also be used to produce electricity. With the passive method the heat of the sun is used to heat water. The heated water turns into steam, which drives big turbines to produce electricity. This is obviously a big and complex process and is usually used on a large scale. The electricity produced in this way is supplied to the users through the electricity grid the same way as electricity produced by other means. In the active method the light of the sun is used to produce electricity and can be done on a much smaller scale. This means the electricity produced can be used directly without having to be distributed on a large scale.

With the second method Photovoltaic (PV) cells are used. A PV cell consists of a semiconductor material, such as silicon. Pure silicon isn’t a good material, because it is too stable, so some impurities are added. The cell consists of a layer of silicon to which Phosphorous is added. Beneath that is a junction material which is very stable and at the bottom another layer of silicon to which, say boron is added. Think of a silicon sandwich with the stable material as the ham. When the sunlight penetrates the top layer of silicon the photons (light particles) agitates the electrons in the silicon. These electrons, which are negative, now start to move around looking for a positive to connect to. Remember negatives and positives attract. Now the bottom layer of silicon comes into play. Because of the Boron impurity there are some positrons (positively loaded) available. This can be seen as holes into which the electrons want to fit. The junction material keeps the electrons and the positrons apart which forces the electrons to move into the wires that are connected to the top and bottom layers of silicon. The electric current formed this way can be utilized directly or stored in special batteries that can be charged and discharged repeatedly without problems. This is actually a good idea, because the electricity can be kept and used even at night when the sun doesn’t shine.

The current produced in this way is in the form of direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. This type of current is used by most electronic devices. Unfortunately most electrical appliances, as well as lighting, uses alternating current (AC) in which the current changes direction repeatedly. To use the DC in these types of appliances the current must be converted to AC and this is done by a converter.

There are, however, other ways to utilize solar power without converting it into electricity first. One of the cheapest and easiest ways to do this is by installing a pool solar heater. To learn more about this just click on this link: Pool Solar Heater.